Funding sought for Pelletier appeal

Wednesday

Nov 26, 2008 at 2:25 PM

By GEORGE AUSTIN

By GEORGE AUSTIN

Editor

SOMERSET — Voters at next Monday's special town meeting will be asked to approve $16,000 for the town's law department, $10,000 of which has been allocated for the appeal of a decision that awarded $600,000 to a former Highway Department employee who brought a sexual harassment and discrimination case against the town.

Selectmen Chairman William Meehan said the town has started the appeal process. He said the cost for the transcripts for the appeal could be as much as $5,000 and said there would be other costs involved for court motions.

Because it involves legal strategy, he said he could not say much else about the case.

The town has not used up all of its legal budget yet, but expects to and that is why the additional funding for the account will be requested at the special town meeting next week. Town Accountant Joseph Bolton said the town has spent $65,783 of that budget. The Pelletier case is not the only legal cost the town has. Somerset, as other municipalities do, spends money on a variety of a legal matters. The town also spent about $10,000 on a case that involved the Planning Board taking the Zoning Board of Appeals to court over its decision to uphold a building inspector's decision. Mr. Meehan said there are also legal costs related to maintaining the town's former landfill and for a wind test tower proposal that a resident has appealed in court. The lawyer that handled the Pelletier case for the town was provided by Somerset's insurance company. Mr. Bolton said he has not seen any prior bills or expenses related to the Pelletier case that were given to the town.

The Dec. 1 special town meeting will start at 7 p.m. in the auditorium at Somerset High School.

Ms. Pelletier was originally awarded $2.1 mlllion by a Bristol County Superior Court jury. A judge later reduced that amount to $300,000 and then, after appeal by Ms. Pelletier's lawyers, increased the amount to $600,000.

If the town does end up having to pay Ms. Pelletier, the town would be subject to paying 12 percent interest on the award.

Selectman Lorne Lawless said he is against the town pursuing an appeal of the decision.

"I think our chances of winning it are slim," Mr. Lawless said.

Mr. Lawless said the case would take 18 months to two years to go to trial. With the interest and lawyers fees, Mr. Lawless said the town could be paying well over another $250,000 if it loses the appeal.

"They very rarely overturn a decision," Mr. Lawless said of the appellate court.

Mr. Lawless said he thinks the town needs to put the Pelletier case behind it.

Selectman Patrick O'Neil said if the town is going to appeal the decision, it has to fund it and so the money is being sought, but said he would advise his colleagues not to comment on any legal matters because he said that could create a slim chance of the town winning the appeal.

"We should really leave the legal issues up to the experts," Mr. O'Neil said.

Mr. Meehan said Mr. Lawless originally supported the town paying the $2.1 million that the court originally awarded to Ms. Pelletier.

Because the decision on whether to appeal the case or not was made in executive session, none of the selectmen could say how they voted on the matter.

Ms. Pelletier won the case after a trial in which she and her lawyers described a working environment in which she was touched in inappropriate places, called homophobic names and where there was pornographic magazines and a pornographic movie shown at the highway barn, among other issues. She also said that she was not allowed to drive the same vehicles as other workers. Ms. Pelletier worked at the Highway Department from 1984 to 2004.

Voters will be asked for the legal funding on the first article of the warrant. That article will also ask voters to approve of $70,456 for maturing debt, $51,486 for interest payments, $14,000 for personal services for the Highway Department and $225 for personal services related to veterans benefits.

The Advisory and Finance Committee has voted to give a favorable recommendation on the article. A&F Committee Chairman Mary Jean Stone said a majority of the selectmen recommended the article, so her committee will back it.

Atty. Stone said her committee voted unanimously to recommend in favor of 18 articles on the warrant, decided to support one article by a majority vote and did not take any action on one article.

Another article on the warrant for next Monday's special town meeting will ask voters to approve of $124,394.22 to fund pay raises for the police patrolmen's union. The article proposes to take $43,360.39 from free cash, which is the money that accumulates after being left over from budgets each year, and fund the rest of the compensation for the police officers through taxation.

At the special town meeting, voters will also be asked to approve of $20,000 to repair and upgrade radio communications equipment for the Police Department.

A money article on the warrant will ask voters to approve of $85,000 for hiring qualified consulting, expert and legal services to assist the town in connection with the evaluation of proposed liquefied natural gas facilities and related pipelines and pending appeals. Hess Weaver's Cove Energy has proposed an offshore LNG berth for unloading the fuel that would be located in Somerset waters. Somerset boards will have to review the proposal. That was the article that the A&F Committee voted to support by a majority vote. Atty. Stone said there was concern about spending so much money on help with the LNG issue because of the tight economic times.

Voters will be asked to approve $270,000 from the retained earnings account of the water enterprise fund for pipe jacking engineering expenses in connection with the renovation and upgrading of the Dublin Street pump station. The retained earnings account has been generated through a sewer infrastructure fee. Voters will also be asked to approve of $14,000 from those retained earnings for obtaining and upgrading meter reading computer software and hardware for the Water Department.

The town will also be asked to approve an additional $9,333 for the Diman Regional Vocational Technical High School district budget for this fiscal year. The funding is needed for transportation costs.

One article on the warrant will ask voters to approve $20,000 for monitoring and maintaining the town's former landfill, located west of Brayton Point Road. The money would cover the cost of engineering, laboratory testing and environmental consulting work. The town has had an agreement since 1988 to monitor the former landfill and to maintain the test wells. Town Administrator Dennis Luttrell said two new test wells were recently put in. In the past year, a lot of fly ash cover was washed out of the landfill. Capping had to be put in place. Mr. Luttrell said the Department of Environmental Protection wants the grass on the property mowed and some tree cut down. The property is privately owned. The landfill was closed in the 1980s.

Voters will be asked to approve $4,636 as matching money for a grant that would be used to purchase energy efficient lighting. That amount of money represents 30 percent of the cost for the lighting. National Grid would pay the rest of the cost for the lights. The town would then save money on its electricity bill over a period of time that would recoup the costs for the lights and then start to save the town some money on the costs.

Another article on the warrant will ask voters to increase the amount of paid personal days that town non-union employees can take from two to three. Town employees in labor unions in town have three paid personal days.

Voters will be asked to approve $5,005 to pay a late medical bill.

A proposal on the town meeting warrant will ask residents to approve of a zoning bylaw that will require permits for temporary banners. Businesses commonly use temporary banners to advertise their products or services. There would be a $20 fee for the banners. Under the proposal, the temporary banners would be allowed to be up for 14 consecutive days and the sign layout, wording and proposed location for the temporary banner must be submitted to the building inspector. Businesses will be allowed one temporary banner permit per quarter and the signs will be limited in size to 10 square feet, if the voters approve the article. The restrictions will not apply to special event signs that are otherwise allowed under town bylaws.

Voters will be asked to rezone a business district in the village to recreational. There are no businesses in the district at the present time. The intent of the article is to create an unbroken recreational district between Main Street and the Taunton River from Old Colony Avenue in the north to the existing recreational district located south of Main Street.

Another article on the warrant will ask voters to amend the Somerset zoning bylaws that relate to special permits for the conversion of a single-family dwelling for occupancy by two families. If approved, the bylaw would say that if a dwelling has been used for occupancy by more than one family, such use must have occurred before the town adopted a zoning bylaw or must have been permissible under the bylaw in effect at the time such occupancy began.

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